It is here again; no not a new Ubuntu release but the much awaited Ubuntu Developer Week. It will begin on 31st Jan 2012 and will conclude on 2nd Jan 2012 giving you three full days of action on the Ubuntu ecosystem. It is here that beginners will get initiated into the methodologies and processes of Ubuntu software development and emerge at the end of three days, thorough professionals learning all they ever can during the intense tutorials and hands-on session.
There is a definitely a palpable anticipation at every Ubuntu Developer Week, for it is at this semi-formal platform, the community and the technologists meet, learn and explore to bring something more to this unique and path-breaking platform called Ubuntu.
This year, there is a greater depth as the topics chosen for mentoring and demystifying are diverse as are the technical experts who will conduct these sessions. Perhaps this will remain a unique week as speakers from across nationalities ”Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA” will converge to provide every interested developer an unique opportunity to acquire the know-how to make Ubuntu a more effective platform.
It is just not enough if Ubuntu and its sponsors visualize goals on Ubuntu media devices/gadgets and tools, but it requires the critical contribution of developers who think-out-of-the-box to deliver the technology. And, here is where the Ubuntu Developer Week Jan-Feb 2012 will play such a critical role.
The sessions at UDW
The principal focus at the three days of development study, discussions and hands-on will be on Packaging, bug fixing, Quality Assuring, Writing the actual code and an overview of Ubuntu projects.
The session on Packaging will introduce beginners and the experienced developers the nuances of how software in Ubuntu is bundled/packaged and how it is maintained. This will involved several hands-on sessions and the experienced developers will share their experiences in this session.
“Packaging Sessions: Intro to Ubuntu development, Getting set up, Dos and Dont’s, working with Upstream projects, building packages locally, using pkgme for automatic packaging, writing good changelog entries, distributed development and loads more.”
The session on Bug fixing and Quality Assurance, both critical processes in open source, will be a principal area of focus at the UDW. It would consist of – “Bug lifecycle, triaging bugs, fixing small bugs in lots of different settings, automated testing, and lots of hands-on action.”
Writing Code session will focus on tools, apps, projects, infrastructure to increase the developer experience and encourage development of quality software. This session would involve the following-“automated testing, pair programming, code review, technology overview, introductions to many cool technologies and making your apps rock.”
Ubuntu Projects, Overview
The various Ubuntu product releases every six months will be the main topic for this session and developers will get to see and understand what will come next-“ Ubuntu TV, Edubuntu, juju, the Cloud, Unity and Debian.”
Normal IRC, will let you join the session and a log will be posted at Ubuntu Developer Week page, for those who will miss the UDW.
